I’m an indie filmmaker who’s made two low-budget features in the last four years: “Life Tracker” starring Matt Dallas in 2013 an the upcoming “The Drama Club.”

Along the way, I’ve learned some things that I wish I could go back and tell my younger self. Here are some of the biggest lessons:

1. Crowdfunding can hurt you.

This isn’t a cow that keeps giving milk. You basically have one shot, so make sure you choose wisely, if you choose to do it at all.

Unless you have an above-the-line attachment capable of generating press and who can point strangers back to your campaign, you’re making a mistake. No attachment? Just you and some buddies? Fine, but the only people who will give to your campaign will be those connected to you already. If Grandma’s going to give you a thousand bucks, she should just give it to you. Don’t pay the crowdfunding site’s fee (around 7 percent on average) or the fee tacked on for using plastic. If you go through a site, you just lost $60 to $100 of Grandma’s money before you even started shooting — all because you needed a link from a company to work up the nerve to ask her.

If you’re a filmmaker without the nerve to ask someone for money, you better hope you find a good producer. Think of those people you’re asking to work for free — that 7 perecent could go to feeding them better on set! Yum. Craft services.

2. Cast recognizable actors.

OK, you’ve probably heard this one before, but think there’s no way to do it with your lack of funds. I’m telling you to do all that you can to get some familiar faces on board, no matter your budget.

I made an indie feature called “Life Tracker” for $150,000. A good chunk of that money came in because an investor loved one of my leads, Matt Dallas, who starred on an ABC Family show. Others gave money because a sports star invested. My great aunt genuinely thought I’d “made it” when she saw Jay Thomas in a small scene in my movie. The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, ComingSoon, MSN and others gave us press before, during and after production. Getty Images showed up to our self-thrown premiere party because Matt Dallas was there.

Fast forward to my next feature, which had no recognizable faces, and no one of note kicked in money. We were able to raise less than half of my first film’s budget and the press won’t touch us. Well, that’s a lie — the L.A. Times came to see the movie when we four-walled for a week…and hated it. So I guess there’s that.

3. You don’t have the cash to be an auteur.

We’ve all heard “it takes a village.” That’s true. It’s even truer on micro-budget sets. DPs, camera operators, gaffers, grips, ADs, sound techs, costumers, production designers, producers, craft services, editors, sound editors, colorists and all the other hundreds of jobs are artists in their own right. The more you pay them, the more you can have your own way at every turn.

But if you’re begging all of your friends to work for peanuts, then demanding everything be your way doesn’t make you a genius auteur — it makes you an asshole.

4. Think about deliverables while you shoot.

Set aside a part of your brain (or someone’s brain on your crew) to consider deliverables. Did you budget for music and effects? If you want to sell to non-English speaking territories, you should. How about your music licensing and cue sheets? Doing them along the way, when possible, makes things easier. You know which one I hate the most? Racing to do the Dialogue Continuity List. Since I don’t have an assistant, that’s my job and I always leave it until the last minute and then realize, “Damn! This takes time!”

On my last feature, “The Drama Club,” after we had a scene in the can we shot one more take of the whole scene sans dialogue. The actors went through all the motions, with footsteps, chairs sliding, glasses clinking, cups hitting tables, pool balls going into pockets, car tires pulling through gravel, but no one said a word.

Yep, we shot a take just for our M&E track, and it worked. Our little no-budget picture didn’t require a foley, and M&E was edited together from on-set recordings. We shot the film in 12 days, so it’s not like we had a lot of time, but we did it anyway. I doubt we were the first to think of this, and I’m guessing it won’t always work, but this time it saved us our asses.

5. Stop showing your movie to everyone.

If you’re going the festival route to build an audience for your film, then stop showing it to all your friends in your living room. Don’t have a cast and crew screening. Don’t have a friends and family screening. Trust me, even Grandma will think twice about paying full ticket price at the festival screening if she’s already seen it. If you want to fill that auditorium, don’t show her.

If you’re not doing the festival circuit and you’re going straight to VOD, it’s even more important that you stop showing it to everyone.

Don’t. Show. Anyone.

You want the movie to climb the iTunes charts? Or make the “New and Noteworthy” list? You do that by getting people to spend money on pre-ordering your movie. If all your Facebook friends and Twitter followers have already seen it, will you be able to get all of them to pony up the $10 to pre-order, or would they prefer to spend that seeing “Spider-Man vs Godzilla vs Predator” at the Cinerama Dome?

Maybe you think this is silly. Well, tell me if you feel the same way after you have to beg people to fill a 100-seat theater and only 50 show up. It’s reality, folks, but we do it because we love it!

Summer blockbuster season is mostly known for top stars like Chris Pratt and Robert Downey, Jr., but it also gives plenty of young indie actors and Hollywood newcomers a chance to make a big introduction on a worldwide stage. 2017 will be no different, as this year's top blockbusters are filled with roles that will be played by some intriguing actors. Here are the ones you should look out for.

Pom Klementieff ("Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2")

Having cut her teeth working on French indie films, Klementieff added martial arts to her skill set by taking boxing lessons to grab the role of a bodyguard in Spike Lee's remake of the Korean thriller "Oldboy." She may use those skills again in "Guardians 2" as Mantis, a new member of the Guardians with empathic powers. Klementieff looks to be in with Marvel for the long haul, as Mantis is also slated to appear in "Avengers: Infinity War."

Jon Bass ("Baywatch")

Jon Bass gets to hang out with the hottest lifeguards on the planet, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach, on whom he has an obvious crush in the movie. Also this year, he starred as Phil Hirschkopf in Oscar-nominated film "Loving," so this might be his breakout year.

Annabelle Wallis ("King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and "The Mummy")

Wallis is starring in two huge movies coming out in the next couple months: "The Mummy" alongside Tom Cruise and "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" with Charlie Hunnam. Previously, she's had little roles in "X-Men: First Class," "Annabelle" and "The Brothers Grimsby," but she apparently has a major role in "The Mummy."

Brenton Thwaites ("Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales")

Thwaites stars as Henry, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley's son, in the fifth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. The handsome Australian, who tries to free his father Will Turner from the Flying Dutchman, also currently has five projects in development, including "Office Uprising" and "Ghosts of War." Think you've seen him before? He starred as Prince Phillip in 2014's "Maleficent."

Amandla Stenberg ("Everything, Everything")

The young actress may be best known for playing the young Rue in the original "Hunger Games," but she steps into a starring role in this adaptation of a YA best-seller about a teenager who lives a very sheltered life thanks to severe allergies to just about everything.

Demetrius Shipp, Jr. ("All Eyes On Me")

Shipp will play the late rap legend Tupac Shakur in the biopic "All Eyes On Me" opposite Jamal Woolard, who will play The Notorious B.I.G. after previously playing him eight years ago in the film, "Notorious.

Jaeden Lieberher ("The Book of Henry")

Speaking of characters with photosensitivity, Jaeden Lieberher played one last summer in the critically acclaimed indie sci-fi flick "Midnight Special." This year, he will play a prodigy who comes up with an elaborate plan to rescue his best friend from her abusive stepfather, who is also the head of their town's police department. If you're interested in seeing the remake of "It," you should give this film a look, as Lieberher will also appear as one of the kids trying to defeat Pennywise the Clown.

Isabela Moner ("Transformers: The Last Knight")

Moner is making the leap from tween star on Nickelodeon's "100 Things To Do Before High School" to leading lady opposite Mark Wahlberg in Michael Bay's mega-franchise. She will play Izabella, a tomboy who befriends a small, damaged Autobot named Sqweeks after losing her parents during the battle in Chicago in "Dark of the Moon."

Zendaya ("Spider-Man: Homecoming")

Zendaya Coleman went from Disney Channel star to singer to starring in one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood. Playing a character named Michelle, she is supposed to be one of Tom Holland's classmates. She will also star in the upcoming "The Greatest Showman" costarring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron -- and early footage looks mesmerizing.

Amiah Miller ("War for the Planet of the Apes")

As the war between apes and humans reaches a brutal climax, Miller will play Nova, a young girl who lost her parents in the war and gets adopted by an orangutan who serves as one of Caesar's closest advisers. What makes Miller's role especially interesting is that Nova also appeared in the original "Planet of the Apes" as a mute, wild human encounter by Charlton Heston's character after he crash lands amongst the apes.

Fionn Whitehead ("Dunkirk")

Whitehead makes his film debut in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk," starring Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy and Harry Styles -- not bad company for your first feature. Nolan told Entertainment Weekly that he needed to find someone very new to showcase how young and inexperienced the soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk, France were. He later found Whitehead, who only had a three-part ITV miniseries to his name.

Tom Taylor ("The Dark Tower")

Newcomer Tom Taylor was cast in the key role of Jake Chambers in "The Dark Tower," a young boy whom Idris Elba's Gunslinger encounters on the hunt for the man in black (Matthew McConaughey), and he is one of the key players in Roland's pursuit of the Dark Tower. Before this, he's mainly done TV series.

Patrick Schwarzenegger ("Midnight Sun")

That's right. Arnold's son is entering showbiz, though his first leading role is definitely no Terminator. Schwarzenegger will star opposite Bella Thorne in "Midnight Sun," a romantic film about a teen girl with a life-threatening sensitivity to sunlight who forms a romance with a long-time crush while keeping her condition a secret from him. Schwarzenegger had bit roles in "Stuck In Love" and "Grown Ups 2" before going to USC to get a business degree.

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TheWrap Summer Movie Preview 2017: This year’s blockbusters could be a launch pad for these dozen up-and-coming actors

Summer blockbuster season is mostly known for top stars like Chris Pratt and Robert Downey, Jr., but it also gives plenty of young indie actors and Hollywood newcomers a chance to make a big introduction on a worldwide stage. 2017 will be no different, as this year's top blockbusters are filled with roles that will be played by some intriguing actors. Here are the ones you should look out for.

HOLLYBLOGS

Joe McClean is an L.A.-based writer and director whose projects include the 2013 indie movie "Life Tracker" starring Matt Dallas and Rebecca Marshall, and the 2017 feature "The Drama Club," due on iTunes and Amazon on June 9. In addition, he has made the shorts "The Speech," "Strangers" "How to Make a David Lynch Film."